Flash Comics #3 - pt. 1

The Flash's hometown is New York City, at least for this story, and the city's newspaper is the Town Cackle, a paper that sells for 2 cents. When his fiance Joan's father is framed as a spy, the Flash's first suspect is the newspaper that reported it (to be fair, it was Joan's idea, and who wants to say no to their fiance?). At the office, Flash just happens to hear the city editor implicate himself to a subordinate.

In Hideouts & Hoodlums, there can either be a random chance of coming into the room at the right moment, or the Editor can simply force the encounter to happen that way if the entire plot hinges on it. Of course, it is not a good idea to make scenarios hinge on a single choice of the player(s). Suppose no one had thought to go to the newspaper office?

Flash uses the powers Invisibly Fast and Race the Train (provided the first power's duration had ended).

Major Williams' science project is the "neutronic bombardment of uranium," which suggests that with minimal research you could learn some reasonably accurate atomic research talk at the beginning of 1940.

Flash is smart to interview Williams to find out what he knows and who he suspects (indeed, it might have made more sense to do this before starting to investigate the Town Cackle), but his timing works against him when Williams' house is robbed at the same time Flash is in jail interviewing Williams. When super-speed is available (or Teleport, for high-level magic-users), plots will need to hinge on this sort of lucky timing.

Not sure what the average temperature was in March 1940, but if Flash strips you down to just your dress shirt and leaves you on the top of the Empire State Building, you'll take a point or two of cold damage.

Rather than use his powers to coerce confessions out of the editor, Flash goes incognito and uses a concealed dictaphone to record his confession. And then the same trick works again when he talks to the spy above him. It's like, if you try to trick a mobster into confessing, the mobster has to save vs. plot to resist the urge to monolog about everything.

When Major Williams is cleared and released from the county jail, he blurts out to the warden that the Flash's real last name is Garrick.

Flash spends a considerable amount of time running out of costume, putting to bed the conceit in 1st ed H&H that superheroes would not be able to use their powers out of costume.

Is that Flash is using some sort of spinning power against the boss spy when he spins him around by his heels (he's pretty strong to lift a man up by his heels!), but the end result is the mobster simply being prone on the ground, so this could have been a simple trip attack with a lot of flavor text added to it.

Further analysis of this issue can be found in The Trophy Case #1.

Next up is Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent. In Panama, Cliff is apparently seduced by a vamp working for spies in the employ of a fictional country called Bortola. Bortola is an Italian female name, meaning that "Bortola" is likely a stand-in for Italy. The naval plans spies are after this month are for a new design of battle cruiser. There's a wrinkle to this one, as the plans currently contain a fatal flaw known to Cliff and the inventor. Instead of keeping it away from the spies, Cliff needs to get these faulty plans to them without making them suspicious -- a good scenario for players who enjoy role-playing over combat, I suppose.

There are a few flaws in the execution. Keeping Cliff's girlfriend in the dark about the seduction was stupid and should have lost him a girlfriend before the end. The Bortolan navy spends "$1 million" on their new fleet of faulty cruisers. Why are they spending American currency?

In this issue, Hawkman is spelled "Hawk-Man," and the narrator also refers to him as "The Phantom of the Night," which doesn't really make much sense. Hawk-Man isn't too concerned about his secret identity (neither was Flash, really), as he sees an old friend of his out for a stroll and calls out to him, "I'm Carter Hall!" He's wearing a completely different design of helmet in this adventure too, one that rests on top of his head and leaves his whole face exposed.

(Flash story read in Golden Age Flash Archives vol. 1, the rest read at readcomiconline.to)

Speed Comics #2 - pt. 1

I'm finally up to November 1939! And we'll start this month with this second issue from Brookwood (later Harvey Comics).

Avast there! That scourge of the seven seas, Baron Von Kampf, is back and he's got one of those electronics-deadening rayguns that are already becoming a comic book cliche.

We've seen freighters and even Naval war vessels used as hideouts, but this is the first whaling ship serving as a hideout.

I don't think something should qualify as both a trophy item and a hideout, which is a good enough excuse for me to keep whaling ships off the Hideouts & Hoodlums 2nd ed. trophy lists. Seaplanes, though, are definitely in, being such a common comic book staple.

Here's Shock Gibson, just sitting at home, reading his newspaper, while fully dressed in his superhero uniform (unless he's pants-less; we really can't see). Later, on the plane, as soon as there's trouble he changes from plain clothes back into his uniform.

Now, besides pointing out how silly this is, I share it for two good points. One, Heroes should have some kind of private life to go home to between adventures, if for no other reason than so they're not just sitting around all the time in their uniform, waiting for trouble.  Second, as Editor, you could make a big deal about asking Shock's player -- "Okay, where do you plan on changing into your uniform? In the plane's bathroom?" *rolls for how many people notice* -- or you can just skip over details like that and get straight into the action. I guess, from this page, that Shock's player prefers action to story details.

This is an odd power -- Restore Power to Electrical Devices? Maybe it could fall under a broader power of Control Electricity. Control Electricity is a 5th level power in Supplement I, though -- that means Shock has an awful lot of brevet ranks, to raise him from 1st level to 7th.

If you were curious about what lascars are, read here.

Finally, Shock seems to be using a buffing power to repel bullets in that last panel. But the water is serving as soft cover too!

The bullet-repelling force field is likely just flavor text for the Imperviousness power.

The three sharks seem to be a wandering encounter.

Whoa, dead with one kick? It doesn't happen that way in H&H, normally. Although...if Shock kicked the shark unconscious, plus did electrocution damage to it, then the shark could be dead. Kind of a jerk move, though, Shock.

Now, I'm prepared to make climbing pretty easy in H&H, but Shock's climb up the prow of a whaling ship, while soaking wet? Has to be a wall-crawling power. I plan on there being one in 2nd ed.

To wreck a machine gun just enough to render it inoperable should be fairly easy, like wrecking a door. If you're doing something fancier, like bending the barrel, the Editor could ask you to wreck on the machines category. If you were doing something even fancier, like bending it into a pretzel shape, then that could be the generator category, or even higher.

Von Kampf here uses the electronics-deadening raygun on Shock, and we discover it has a useful side effect of paralyzing superheroes whose powers are electricity-based. Now, players might balk at this, because the source of their powers is all optional flavor text in H&H. Some players go to the trouble of explaining how they get each of their powers and other players put no effort into that at all. This weapon seems to be penalizing Shock's player for going to the extra work. The Editor could allay these concerns in advance by giving powers common sense benefits outside of game mechanics -- like saying that electricity-based Hero can turn on the lights in a room without flipping a switch, or make people's hair stand on end without expending a power.

The hurricane seems to be another wandering encounter.

A lugger is this. I would probably lump these into a category of sailboats for transport trophies.

There isn't a catching power, so I would say Shock is using a Raise power here to hold up the house. It's not a very big house, so I think I'd let any of the Raise powers do this.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #3 - pt. 1

I've talked before on this blog about feeling free -- as many Golden Age comic book writers did -- to mine classic literature for story ideas. Here, The Green Mask borrows heavily from Oliver Twist.

The Green Mask seems to "suddenly appear". It is likely that he merely achieved surprise when encountering them, though he might have used the move silently skill to sneak up on them, or even (in 2nd edition) burned a stunt to perform it extra well.

"Talk up!" seems to have been a common way of saying "Speak up!" back in 1939.

More evidence of 1) how easy it needs to be for Heroes to climb. If there's less than a 50% chance of scaling nine stories to that window, then Green Mask here -- who can't be higher than 2nd level, tops -- would find this a very dangerous fall. And 2) it's ridiculously easy to knock someone out from behind. I have added a combat rule about this for 2nd edition, but it's only good during a surprise attack, not during regular combat.

Okay, now that's just silly. Pushing their guns into their chins is just going to make them look at you funny, not knock them out. Sometimes players get bored with their normal combat options and try new things like this. Well, not exactly like this, but it reminds me of the old "Can I stab him with my arrow instead of shooting it?" question.

I've talked about this before on the blog too, weapons that aren't really weapons, and having them do 1-3 points of damage instead of a full die.

Where did that air pocket come from? A freebie from the Editor when the player seemed stuck? A random encounter? The player asking for something to happen, and using asking the Editor to allow the save vs. plot mechanic to determine if it happens?

Also note the handwritten letter from Green Mask, now in police custody. Golden Age Heroes don't have to worry about anyone being able to trace their identity from even fairly obvious clues.

It's amazing how prescient Dick Briefer was about watches being able to make phone calls, and then how goofy he was with the cone-shaped planet. Don't be afraid to mix stuff we know now makes sense with stuff that we know now is just plain crazy talk.

I'm sharing this page because I love that crazy ship design. Spaceships designed like giant shovels -- why not? It reminds me of TSR's Spelljammer setting. I wonder if H&H will ever have a supplement like that someday...

Although the last panel calls those things "creatures", the next page reveals them to be more spaceships. Perfect Spelljammer fodder.

Yeah, don't worry, players, I'm not including a 150' giant in the 2nd ed. basic book. The story only ever calls it a "beast" or a "monster".  I'd probably call it something like a "gargantuan" to distinguish it from a normal giant.

Chen Chang's men are consistently called bandits in this installment of Chen Chang, but stat-wise they seem more like nomads.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Detective Comics #22

The Crimson Avenger makes a very rare cover appearance here.

So far, in my experience running Hideouts & Hoodlums, not too many players put any effort into concealing their other identities. And while it's true that maintaining a secret identity can be a liability during an adventure, it at least seems like it could be a fun thing to roleplay about during downtime.

Since Slam Bradley's adventure is "The Return of Fui Onyui", this might be a good time to talk about racism in Golden Age comic books again. I like to think that I'm pretty good at understanding historical racism in context and not be offended by it -- but even I can't stand the insult names many Chinese characters got. Maybe if you think of them as codenames, intentionally chosen by Chinese agents out of a sense of irony, it could be palatable.

The other way to combat the racist elements, while not leaving them entirely out of your game, is to make sure there is equal representation of good guys to bad from each minority group. This Slam Bradley story does that, teaming Slam up with good guy Yat Sin to battle Fui Onyui.

One more point to consider here is that Fui Onyui is a returning villain -- the first ever in a non-serialized comic book adventure. When Jerry Siegel referenced a story from 21 issues earlier, it was a huge leap of faith that his readership extended back that far -- but in doing so he invented comic book continuity.

I have almost never used returning villains, so far, in H&H (and my one exception only occurred in a sub-plot). For one thing, H&H players I've gamed with tend to be brutal dispensers of justice and leave little room for returning villains. But further than that... while familiar characters are fun to see in comic books, I fear there is a lessening of dramatic impact every time you see a villain return, when the Heroes already know they can beat him because they have before. I'll be testing this theory in my Justice Society campaign later, when they start running into recurring villains, like Brain Wave...

Slam buys a three-cent newspaper and drives a red convertible 100 MPH to try to find out if Shorty is okay. He has a make-up kit in his apartment, which is in an eight-story building.

Slam busts a locked door in with just his shoulder. Do fighters need a chance to wreck things, limited to doors only?

Slam is attacked by assassins, which may become a mobster type. Assassins seem to prefer attacking from the rear and have a chance to sneak up on people stealthily from behind.

Fui Onyui uses a chemical that induces suspended animation ("the living death") in Shorty.

Incidentally, the dentist office behind Slam at the beginning of this story is a Dr. Siegel.

Larry Steele is on one of those adventures where he has to seek shelter in a spooky old house from a storm -- but with the further incentive that the road ahead of him is washed out, so he can't reach his destination. The house has no electricity and the owner sees by candlelight. There are bats living upstairs and this one dark staircase ends at a pit trap. There is a laboratory with two entrances and volatile chemicals inside that can blow up the whole room (but not the whole house). A mad scientist and three madmen (new mobster type?) lurk in the house, though after an hour the madmen turn on the scientist and kill him. In the cellar is a locked cell with the scientist's pretty niece locked in it.

In The Crimson Avenger, Lee Travis deals with the issue of protecting secret identities and hits on what seems like a pretty good idea: offer a $5,000 reward for information on your own secret identity so that, if anyone is getting close to learning who you are, they might come forward. Of course, you're also incentivizing people to try to figure it out, so there's trade-offs there. When everyone thinks the D.A. has information on The Crimson, the mob shows up to lay claim to it.

Bruce Nelson solves a murder mystery where the murder weapon is poisoned throat spray. Instead of a random onset time, this poison always takes effect during the same time during a play.

(Read at ReadComics.net)